Why Syria Needs the Golan Heights

I just read an interesting, and seemingly true, article on peace with Syria and why Bashar Assad, Syria’s President, wants the Golan Heights so badly.

It seems that Syria is the only hostile border Israel has without a major civilian population on the line. Gaza and Palestinian West Bank towns use massive, dense civilian populations to hide terrorists as Israelis try to make a move. The same goes on the Lebanon boarder, where Lebanese homes sit literally hundreds of yards from the boarder. In these situations, the governments say that they cannot control the terrorists because they are part of militias in civilian areas.

In the mean time, these dense populations are staging grounds for rocket and mortar attacks (Lebanon War and currently in Gaza) and are preparation grounds for suicide terrorists (Intifada). Israel cannot move the battle fronts away from population centers, and will not cause mass casualties in enemy population centers, and the enemy knows it.

Syria does not have that luxury because of the Golan Heights. Most of the Golan is sparsely populated. Most of the Syrian-Israeli boarder is sparsely populated. This gives Israel the ability to keep civilians safe. If we give the Golan away, things will be like on the Lebanon boarder. Any missiles will not be Assad’s fault because “he cannot control” the people firing them.

The Golan is as strategic today as it was in 1967, only the weapons have changed. Israel cannot let Syria have the Golan. They will ruin Israel’s water source and use the territory as a staging ground for attacks just like Hamas in Gaza.